From test tubes to treatment: Two TB researchers on getting the ancient disease themselves
Two tuberculosis researchers share their experiences of contracting the disease they study in the laboratory. Despite strict adherence to safety protocols, the incident highlights the persistent risk of TB transmission in research environments.
Why it matters
This story underscores the occupational hazards faced by medical researchers and the ongoing global challenge of controlling tuberculosis transmission.
Facebook 0 Tweet 0 Email 0 Being a researcher who studies tuberculosis in the lab is one thing, having the TB bug in your lungs is quite another. Spotlight sat down with two of a relatively small number of people who have experienced both.
One morning in April, Constance Schreuder, a senior medical technologist at a large research group at the University of Cape Town, was called into the campus’s occupational health office. “I was thinking, did I do something wrong?” she recalls.
When she got to the office, she says the doctor immediately opened the window behind him. She wondered “what is going on now?”.
The doctor told her that she has tested positive for the very illness she’s been studying at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) for over two decades.
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